“Why spend $1999 to get the least expensive Apple computer with a decent video card when you can pay less than a fourth of that for an equivalent sleek and small form-factor desktop with the same hardware,” says a note on the company Web site.

Psystar isn’t the first company to make a Mac clone. Apple allowed a limited number of computer-makers to install the Mac OS on its hardware in the mid-1990s, but upon his return, Steve Jobs put an end to the clone computers.

There may be another problem for Psystar on the horizon. Apple’s end user license agreement states that “You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.” It seems pretty clear that the new computers are in violation of this agreement.